It's the holiday season! A time for some of the finest things in life: family, good cheer and that sweet, sweet music. At the same time, though, the holidays can be a little overwhelming. Bright lights, commercialization, packed calendars, you know the drill.
We're going to get a little more mellow on this special holiday edition of Jazz Night in America as we gather around The Yule Log — an album by Philadelphia-born pianist George Burton that is anything but a typical Christmas record. "The album was my take on just using unusual holiday songs," says Burton. "I didn't want to go down a traditional path of what everybody else was doing."
Despite most of the songs being on the obscure side of the holiday canon, the themes on the album are familiar to the season. "It's a journey through some emotions, some memories, some self discovery, some reflections," he says, "and that's a lot of the things that I think most of us go through around this time of year."
Set List:
- "Fum Fum Fum" (traditional)
- "Some Children See Him" (Alfred Burt)
- "The Holly and the Ivy" (traditional)
- "Little Altar Boy" (Howlett Peter Smith)
- "We Three Kings" (John Henry Hopkins Jr.)
- "Jesu Parvule" (Burt)
- "Christmas Waltz" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne)
- "Christmas Time is Here" (Vince Guaraldi)
- "Auld Lang Syne" (traditional)
Musicians: George Burton, piano, harmonium; Nancy Harms, vocals; Aryssa Leigh Burrs, vocals; Diane Monroe, violin; Veronica Jurkiewicz, viola; Maura Dwyer, cello; Pablo Menares, bass; Nazir Ebo, drums
Credits: Trevor Smith, writer and producer; Sarah Geledi, producer; Christian McBride, host; Ron Scalzo, episode mix; Nikki Birch and Mitra Arthur, video producers; Steven A. Williams, executive producer; Suraya Mohamed, executive producer of NPR Music; Keith Jenkins, vice president of visuals and music strategy at NPR.
Special thanks to Lena Wright.
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